The present disclosure relates to electronics, and more specifically, to antenna systems such as those used in electronic warfare (EW).
Today's EW environment requires EW antenna systems to radiate simultaneous pulses in different directions 30% to 100% of the time. There are two basic EW antenna systems in current use: active electronically scanned array (AESA) systems and Rotman lens systems.
The AESA systems cannot simultaneously radiate multiple beams in multiple, different directions without splitting the main array into a corresponding set of multiple sub-arrays. Splitting the main array into sub-arrays broadens the beam pattern of each sub-array, thereby reducing the gain and hence the effective radiated power (ERP). Thus, the ERP hitting a target is reduced by both the loss of gain and the split of power.
Rotman lens systems can radiate multiple beams in multiple directions using the full aperture of the array for each beam. Thus, the ERP hitting a target is reduced only by the split of power. However, the size of a Rotman lens system imposes additional constraints. Rotman lens systems tend to be large, limiting their use in two-dimensional and polarization diverse applications.